by Sadie Sears
I didn’t punch him because he was a natural jokester, and he didn’t mean anything by it. Plus, I would be sitting in the front row with Lila and Zoe when they went. Lila leaned her head on my shoulder. “Thank you for coming today.”
I pressed another kiss into the top of her head. “Thank you for inviting me.” This was where I belonged. Not necessarily on the side of a mountain in Vermont, but wherever Lila was. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
She melted into my side as the fireworks started.
12
Lila
I looked into a closet I hadn’t noticed before while Sophie opened the bathroom and inspected the waterflow in the sink and the flushing capability of the toilet. Sunlight bathed the carpeting through the windows, and the bamboo floor stretched through the main area into the back rooms that each had a door also of bamboo.
“So how was Saturday?”
I hadn’t told her much, but I was dying to tell someone. Maybe because I was never the one anyone looked at. I was the sickly one, the one who saved the table while Gretta, Sophie, and Justin were out on the dance floor. Well, now Justin and Sophie, since Gretta was happily claimed and flying the friendly skies with Sam.
Sophie came out of the bathroom and leaned against a wall, arms crossed, blonde hair a puff of curls, eyes piercing blue as she waited for me to pull my head together and organize the juicy bits of the story.
“Well, when we woke up—” Not a coincidence I picked this line to start with.
“We? You and Zoe? Or we, as in you and the hottie with the body?”
“Me and Leath.” I waited for her eyes to shrink back into her face, for her mouth to close and for her to stop acting like I couldn’t get laid without hiring the job out to professionals.
“Seriously?” I didn’t mean to sound gruff, or angry, or harsh, but what was so unbelievable about it? “Am I too hideous to land a guy like Leath?”
“No, Lila, goodness. It’s just been a really long time for you. A decade? Plus, how old is Zoe now?” She knew damned well but wanted to make her point.
But she had a point. “I think around the fifth year it just gets to be not so important.”
“Really?” She cocked an eyebrow.
“No. It was always important.” Less so now that I had finally gotten some. But not by much. I gave her the PG-rated version of the details, then stared out the front window. I was happy, and I felt better, but I wasn’t deluded enough to think I’d beat MS. Relapse would happen again and again. Degenerative diseases weren’t apt to go away, and mine wasn’t one that gave a warning before it made my body misbehave. And when it happened, not if, I would be leaving Sophie on her own to deal with our business.
“I thought if I dragged you back here again, I’d have all your attention.” Sophie clucked her tongue against her teeth. “What’s wrong?”
I sighed. My thoughts weighed almost as much as I did. “I don’t want this business to end up a burden to you.”
“Burden? Of course it will be. But it’ll be our burden, together. You and me.” Sophie Sunshine. That was what I used to call her. Because she was always a bright-side kind of girl.
“And what if I have a flare-up?” This wasn’t just an idea we had kicked around at my kitchen table anymore. We needed to look at everything from every angle. Plus, it gave me time to think of something other than how I felt about Leath. I’d tried to picture him in my life, me in his, Zoe in ours, and it was a combination of happiness and sheer terror that it wouldn’t last, that he would just disappear and leave a gaping hole in our lives.
“You know what I think?” She had her hip cocked, her fist propped against it and narrow eyes pointed at me. “I think you’re a big baby. We can do anything, Lila, because you’re you, and I’m me, and we have people. Lots of people. And we can hire people when our people have things to do.” She added a tilted head to her stance and narrowed her lips to match her eyes. “You know what else I think?”
“What?” Because she did most of the talking in our relationship, I only sometimes added in a word here and there.
“I think you’re full of crap. I think there’s more to this than a disease you’ve been living with for ten years.”
I should’ve known she’d see through me. And no point in trying to keep it to myself because she had a voice and a phone and she would call me or visit my house or sit in my room until the wee hours singing bad boy band songs until I gave her the details. Or maybe she’d grown up since I got pregnant with Zoe, but I wasn’t taking the chance.
“I think I might be opening a business with my best friend… And falling for Leath.” There it was, ladies and gentlemen. The headline. The one we would beat to death and discuss until I was falling apart with the details.
“All fabulous things: a best friend, a business, a boyfriend. The best three Bs in the book. What’s the problem?”
Wasn’t that what I had her for? To find me the downside? To show me the error of my wayward ways? This wasn’t our dynamic. I didn’t do this kind of work.
“I just don’t know if what I feel is about—”
“The hot monkey sex?”
I shook my head and smiled. She could take my bad mood and lighten it with her smile. Her questions were just the bonus to our friendship.
“I didn’t have hot monkey sex.” Hot, definitely. “I think just because I was sick, he was gentle.”
“Well, let’s take him out back and kick his ass. How dare he care about your illness?” She widened her eyes and smacked her hands together. “I’ll hold him down for you.”
“Shut up.” I shoved at him. “You know what I mean. I don’t want to start off with a complex about worshipping him just because he cooked for me and cleaned for me and took care of me and Zoe and he played games with her and he brought me a star-spangled strawberry poke cake.” Now I was just babbling.
“What the hell is a strawberry spangled cake?”
It had been quite lovely and decorated like an American flag.
“And you hate strawberries.”
“But he didn’t know that, and he thought to bring a cake, and that counts. And he’d been so sorry he hadn’t chosen something I liked better. Adorably sorry.” Kissed me outside my house until the wee hours of morning sorry.
“So, did he treat you like a job or like a baby? Did he patronize you? I’ll seriously flatten his tires.” She tilted her head and pursed her lips, not even looking at me for an answer, so I didn’t bother as she continued. “Of course, he can fly, so tires probably aren’t much of an inconvenience. I’ll think of something.”
“Put your scissors away. He treated me like a princess who knew her own mind. He let me do what I could do and didn’t step in until I asked.” Same way she cared for me when she stayed. “He was perfect.”
Sophie nodded, clicked her tongue against her teeth. “He’s too perfect, right? All those shiny teeth, strong arms, big di—”
“Soph!” I laughed. She used her bawdy talk to lighten the mood. “I just feel crazy. Like I want to be with him every minute, and then I feel like I shouldn’t want that. And I’m thirty-four years old. I’m way too old to be crushing on Leath, to be playing the Priscilla to his Elvis.”
Her eyebrow disappeared almost into her hairline again. “So now you think he’s a king?” She squinted and tapped her chin. “Interesting, and Freudian, and very telling.”
Oh, dear. “We should get a couch. Could probably charge a lot extra for the Sophie Psychoanalysis.” I threw in an eye roll. “You should get your own YouTube channel.”
She shook her head for a second then sobered. “Look, you’re simply scared. New relationships are amazing and beautiful and terrifying. It’s either going to work out or it isn’t, but you’ll be all the better for the experience.”
“A tarot reading would help.” And I would repay her with a massage later. Or a giant bottle of the perfume she liked. Or I’d take the kids one weekend so she could go on one of her singles’ t
rips to that new winery in Burlington.
But she shook her head. The traitor. “No can do, butterfly. You have to work this one out on your own.” But she was quiet for a second. “My gut says you should go for it, though, if you want to go with that.”
Her gut was as reliable as her cards. And if it said go with it, hell, yeah. And I was still buying her the big bottle of perfume.
She chuckled. “You should see how happy that made you.” And she would’ve talked about me for as long as I wanted, days or hours or weeks or months, but not in a building without a chair or a coffee or wine dispenser. “So, what about the studio? What should we do?”
I twisted my mouth from side to side like I wasn’t excited and dying to see our sign on the front of the building and our décor inside and our names on a lease. “I say call Allen. Let’s sign a lease.”
An hour later, we were signed, sealed and a deposit and first and last month’s rent lighter in my checkbook and her savings. I waited until Allen left then happily danced around the room with Sophie.
“This is a huge day, Lila. You should call Leath.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and handed it to me. “Go on. The girls are at Macy’s tonight. You need to climb that man’s banana tree.”
She was right, of course. “Where the hell do you come up with this stuff?”
Didn’t matter. I was making the call, and tonight, I would be enjoying the entire Leath jungle.
I walked from my parking spot near the north end of the park to Fresca’s on Main where Leath agreed to meet me. Doyle Henry was an old family friend, and he owned the place, so I might’ve asked for a special favor or two. I wanted this night to be special.
Leath stood at the front door waiting for me. He looked as handsome as ever in a deep green button-down that made his eyes even darker, and a pair of slacks that hugged his long legs. When I approached, he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. Soft. Gentle. Delicious. Then slipped his hand into mine as we pulled apart and smiled. “You look beautiful.”
I grinned. “Oh, this old thing?” A simple blue dress Zoe said made my eyes pop. I hadn’t worn it in a while, but the desire in his eyes made me glad I picked it tonight.
He laughed and led me inside, then guided me to our table. More than one woman turned her head when we walked through, and I might’ve puffed my chest out a little. Leath was with me, and they all knew it. But more, I knew it. His gaze was pointed at mine, staring, his gaze holding mine captive. He held my chair for me and kissed my knuckles before he walked around and sat. His eyes sparkled in the dancing candlelight from the lantern in the center of the table.
Fresca’s was one of those quirky storefront sandwich places with a gift shop in the front that sold their artisan breads and European cheeses and had a few tables behind for dining. It was a great place to pop in for a quick lunch, but the atmosphere changed around dinner to something that looked romantic. Or maybe that was just the guy I was with.
He closed his menu and set it aside, then laced our hands together on top of the table. The waitress came. Leath winked at me. “May I?” I nodded, and he didn’t sit back or stop staring at me when he ordered for both of us, a veggie sandwich without cheese on a baguette for me, and his bacon and beef melt on a hearty herb roll with a bottle of pinot. I liked his take-charge attitude, the way he led me into the room, ordered for me—and ordered the perfect thing. If he’d been wrong, I would’ve set him straight. I wouldn’t have thought I would’ve enjoyed sitting back and letting someone else take the lead, but my heart did a little stutter step.
There was something about being with this man and the ambiance of this place that made me slip off my shoe and run my toes over his calf, smile while he grinned, and flush when he leaned closer. He smelled like his usual citrus and sandalwood, and I wanted to breathe him in, all of him.
The waitress brought our bottle of wine then disappeared again.
“How was your day?” Leath’s voice, low and deep, brushed over me like a caress.
“Sophie and I rented the studio building.” It had been an old dance studio, so everyone in town called it Marshall’s. Hopefully, that would all change soon. “We’re gonna do it. We’re gonna start ‘Sacred Spaces,’ a yoga and holistic tarot and metaphysical studio.”
I waited for his grimace about my New Age bullshit, but he smiled. “I have some great ideas on how you can deck out the space.”
That he wanted to help and had given thought to how we should use the space was so sweet. I tilted my head and imagined a future of Sophie and me living our dreams with Leath by my side. “Yeah?”
“I might know a guy who has a skill or two growing some herbs that we could use to make tea for your clients, and maybe clean out and use that garden of yours.”
My mind spun with the possibilities. Our own blends of herbal tea. “You’re a gardener?”
He pointed both thumbs at himself. “Earth dragon, right here.” We shared a laugh and he sobered. “Seriously, I’m so happy for you, and proud.”
I was a thirty-four-year-old woman with a twelve-year-old child, a degenerative neurological disorder, and I was a business owner with a beautiful man sitting across a table from me, and he was proud of me. A flutter of happiness beat back the slight fear I’d been fighting all day. I wanted to hug him and to be hugged, but the waitress came back with our food and poured us each a fresh glass of wine.
Leath took a bite of his sandwich, and a dribble of cheese dripped adorably from the corner of his mouth. My fingers itched to wipe it away, but I was equally happy to see his tongue sneak out and catch it. A hum started low in my belly, and I took a sip of wine to keep from moaning aloud.
“How’s your sandwich?”
It was spinach, tomatoes, and avocado on a toasted baguette. I wasn’t writing love letters for it. “I prefer your cooking.”
Whenever I complimented him, his skin flushed like it was the first time he’d ever heard a bit of praise. “Well, I just happened to have made you a very decadent gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free chocolate avocado mousse.”
“Decadent?” The word resonated deep within me.
He nodded and grinned. “It’s what the recipe said when I downloaded it this afternoon.”
“You made dessert for me?” My heart sighed. He’d taken time out of his day to download the recipe, buy or at least gather the ingredients, and create the dessert. So sweet. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t like chocolate. But we both knew we weren’t going back to his place for dessert. Not the kind we ate anyway.
And it made me feel sexy. I slid my bare foot up his calf to rest between his thighs.
He shifted so I had better access. “Why, Miss Kipling.” He let his hand fall to rest on my ankle. “Are you flirting with me?”
Yes, I was. “If you can’t tell, I guess I’d better up my game.”
He gave me a look that could’ve peeled the paint off the wall. “Oh, don’t worry, sweetheart, your game is on point.” He rubbed my foot then nodded toward the door. “Wanna get out of here?”
More than anything I wanted to head back to his place and get started on dessert. A tickle snaked through my stomach as he paid our check and we left the restaurant. By the time he pulled out onto Main then made a left, I was all in with this guy. The concept of loving someone until the day I died wasn’t just an abstract idea, it was a possibility now.
He pulled up in front of his place and shut his truck off, and then came around to open my door. As we walked inside his house, he again kept his hand at the small of my back, and I thought how much I liked having it there. It was a small touch, but it felt intimate, connecting us in one more way.
When he shut the door behind us, I smiled. I hadn’t taken my time to look around much when I’d stayed with him. But I was in Leath’s place again, with the things he’d collected over his life, and I wanted a minute to explore, to see his history through the mementos he’d chosen to keep and bring with him, to investigate the mosaic glass umb
rella stand in different shades of green and tan inside the door, the pottery vases on the front of the brick fireplace hearth, the book collection. He distracted me, though, sliding his arms around me and kissing the side of my throat just under my ear.
“Mm.”
“You want a drink?” He moved to pull his arms away, but I laid my hands over his and held him there.
“No.” I twisted around so we were chest to chest, and I could look up into his beautiful emerald eyes. Eyes that were cloudy with passion and darkened with desire.
The summer wind blew through his curtains and warmed my skin as he pulled me closer, lowering his head and fusing our mouths together. My hands traveled over the contours of his chest while his tongue danced with mine, and he untied the sash at the waist of my dress, then went for the zipper tab at the top.
When the dress pooled at my feet, the air slid over me like a breath, and Leath’s smile widened. “You’re so beautiful.”
And even if he was just saying it, even if he didn’t mean it, I loved hearing it. My fingers trembled as I lifted them to unfasten the buttons on his shirt. “No being gentle this time. And no holding back. I know I won’t.”
I pushed his shirt off his shoulders then unfastened his belt and whipped it out of the loops. I let the buckle dangle over my finger before I grinned and dropped it. Leath held up his hands and let me back him toward the wall while I worked the clasp and zipper on his pants.
When he’d gone as far as the living room wall would let him, he kissed me long and deep. He tasted of the wine we’d had for dinner, earthy and spiced. His tongue delved deeper into my mouth, and I moaned. If the kiss never ended, it would be too soon, but I was the one who pulled away, who dragged my mouth from his and moved to his throat then trailed down his chest, taking one of his nipples between my teeth and pinching the other between my thumb and forefinger. His skin was smooth and firm, salty and warm, and he sucked in a lip between his teeth as I explored him.